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Theo Slater — a Sacramento attorney and one of the founders of the California National Party — joins Sean and Charles to tell how the party began: a book about the Haitian Revolution, the wars that showed no sign of ending, and a founding convention in West Sacramento.

Theo traces the party's growth through the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign and the shock of Trump's first win, the infighting that nearly choked it, and why it was never going to be a pressure group for the Democrats. He and Sean lay out what they think will never change while California stays in the union — the wars, health care and immigration — and look ahead: AI, cheap Chinese EVs, drones, and a radically green, decentralized California built around its counties and bioregions. Then Michael Loebs's campaign for governor, the 44% of Californians who'd vote to leave, the midterms, and why, in Theo's words, you can't reform a corpse.

In this episode

• 00:22 — Theo Slater, a founder of the party
• 02:01 — How it started: Obama's wars and The Black Jacobins
• 04:42 — War for profit, and "the most warlike nation"
• 07:55 — Eisenhower, Obama and the "good war"
• 09:46 — World War II, the camps, and deportations
• 13:59 — Why not reform the Democrats?
• 15:11 — Bernie Sanders, Clinton and the 2016 primary
• 17:53 — From ten members to fifty
• 19:39 — The night Trump won
• 21:47 — California's Republicans, and Wyoming's two senators
• 23:57 — Infighting in the early movement
• 24:50 — The Switzerland of the Pacific: defense, NATO and Ireland
• 28:22 — Growing pains
• 30:55 — Never a pressure group; the first convention
• 32:23 — The revolutionary party
• 34:38 — What will never change: war, health care, immigration
• 40:28 — Will the US last twenty years?
• 41:21 — AI, EVs and China
• 45:09 — Drones and the war of the future
• 45:46 — Michael Loebs's run for governor
• 47:46 — Inyo County, and the unheard
• 48:57 — Theo's California: Ecotopia and radical democracy
• 51:05 — The California DEAL: decentralization
• 53:15 — The California Bioregions Regeneration Council
• 55:40 — Shout-outs to the founders
• 56:14 — How Sean found the CNP
• 58:25 — 44% would vote to leave
• 59:49 — The midterms
• 1:03:36 — Gerontocracy
• 1:04:27 — You can't reform a corpse

Guest: Theo Slater — attorney, Sacramento; a founder and the first elected chair of the California National Party. He now works on the California Bioregions Regeneration Council, on Discord.

Facts and sources. We checked what was said in this episode, right and wrong, with links: checkpointcalifornia.com/008